Lighting system for cars



June a, 1924. 1,496,598

I Y B. RABINOWITZ LIGHTING SYS'IEK FOR CARS Filed Nov. 7 3. 19?! um ulfilmu lmlll an @1- i Patented June 3, 1924 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN"- RABINOWITZ, 0F BROOKLYN, NEW YflRK, ASSIGNG R 0F 0 NE-HALF 1'0 ISRAEL H. KAPLAN, 02E BROQKIJYN, NEW YORK.

LIGHTING SYSTEM FOR CARS.

Application filed November 3, 1921., Serial He. 512;;71.

T '0 all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN, RABINOr wrrz, a citizen of the, United States, and a resident of the. boro' h of Brooklyn, city and State of New Y iilc, have invented certain new, and useful Improvements in Lighting Systems for Cars, of which the followi is a specification.

y invention relates to an automatic lighting system for cars or trains. The, ob ject is toprovide, in connection with the lamps by which the car or, cars are lighted, automatic means for throwing on the lights when the car or train is about to. enter a tunnel or to pass under a bridge or to enter any place where the. car or cars. might re quire temporary. lighting; and to turn oil the, lights when thecar or train emerges from such localities. Where a car is oper ated in the daytime and it occasionally en ters a, poorly lighted or dark section such as a tunnel, bridge, orother location, it is often necessary to turn on the lamps temporarilyv to avoid accidents to passen ers in the car and in meny places the pu lic ordinancesor laws make it obligatory to turn on. the lights temporarily. The conductor or train,

man in such cases is required to give someattention to the operation of the lights. Where the section requiring temporary lighting-is passed through quickly the conductor or trainrnan is very likely to neglect to operate the lights and this may result in an accident occurring to some passenger owing to lack of light in the car. Theobject of. the present invention is to provide automatic means for switching on and off the lights where light is required only temporarily as when passing through tunnels, under bridges, through viaducts, etc. Another object is to provide a corrective switch by means t which the circuit may be corrected in case the lamps are turned off when they should be turned on and vice versa. The circuit may be corrected by simply throwing over a switch andthereafter the device will operate correctly. I also provide a shunt circuit in connection with the above to permit the lamps to he turned on for continuous lighting at night when the intermittent lighting is not required. v a

The present device is intended as a protection and it. is also intended to save in the consumption of current because it is often the custom new to turn on the lights when a car approaches a dark place and to leave the lights. turned on for some time after the car emerges from the. dark place and'thi's causes a waste in current In the drawing forming part of this. application,

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of my lighting system as applied to a car. i

Figure 2 is a sectional view of a car truck showing, the automatic switch mounted th e n,

igure 3 is a sectional view of the auto.- matic switch,

Figure 4 is an end view thereof, and

Figures 5 and 6 are sectional views. thereof.

The present device maybea plied to a,

car operated singly or to a num er of cars in a train. In the latter case each car may have a separate and complete installation or one set of switches may control all the lights for the whole train.-

I In Figure 1 I have shown diagrammati-- cal'ly my improved device. Herein, I have shown a number of lamps, 1 which it is. to be understood are: placed" in one or-more cars for lighting the interior thereof, These lamps are connected as, to one pole with the; wire 2 and as to the other pole with the wire 3: and the circuit includes, asolurce of current 4t which may be a battery or the service circuit from which the car isopersated'.

From one side of the source of current. supply'I have shown a wire 5 running to a pair of switch. knives 6 and 'Z withwhich the automatic switch 8 is associated; There is a wire 2, 9,, running, from one side of the.

lamps, and this wire is adapted to. be, connected through a correcting switch 10 with either the wire 11 or the. wire 19:, At the other end of the wire 11 l. have a.

switch knits 13 ;and atone end ofthefwiro 12 I have arranged; a' switch lmitev 14.. Through the automatic switch; 8.,- the details. at which will be later described, the wire 11 or the wire 12 is adapted to be connected, upv

ed on the trucl; of the carvand; about.

transverse central line thereof in order that it may be operated by the same actuating devices in whichever direction the car travels on the track. In Figure 2 I have indicated a car body 18 mounted on the truck 19, the wheels of which travel on the track rails 20. The automatic switch 8 is shown mounted on the truck bolster 21 where the revolvable spoke wheel 22 may be turned a quarter turn each time it engages with one of the actuating devices 23 which I have shown attached to one of the railroad ties 24 and which member 24 may consist of a simple plate projecting above the ties.

Any automatic switch may be employed for the purpose. The one shown herein by way of example is constructed as follows: There is a shaft 25 projecting from the easing 26 and it has a spoke wheel 22 which is operated on by one of the stationary plates 23 arranged near the path of the car. This wheel 22 is turned 90 each time it is ac tuated by one of the plates 23. On the shaft 25 there are arranged the straps 27 for engaging any of the free ends of the several switch knives 6, 7, 13, 14: and opposite the straps 27 there is another pair of straps 28 which are also adapted to en a e any of the switch knives. There is a 29 fixed to the shaft 25 and one end of a coiled spring 30 which surrounds the shaft 25, is connected with the disk 29 and its opposite end is fixed to a disk 31. The straps 27 28, and the disk 31 are connected together to move as one and they are loose on the shaft 25. The disk 31 has a radial slot 32 and the disk 33, lying ad'acent thereto, has a lateral projection 34 w ich engages in the slot 32. The disk 33 is loose on the shaft 25 and it has a shoulder 35 on its peripheral ed e which engages with one or the other of t e later pro jections 36 on the casing, which projectlons 36, are arran ed 90 apart around a circle. When the spo e wheel 22 is turned a uarter turn it turns the shaft 25 and the isk 29 puts a tortional strain on the spring 30. The latter is contracted by this action and the disk 33 may slide along the shaft 25 enough to allow the shoulder 35 of the disk 33 to pass the abutment 36 with which it engages. When the disk 33 escapes one of the projections 36 the shaft 25 and the straps 27, 28, rapidly revolve 90 and then the shoulder 35 engages the next projection 36 and the rotation of the shaft and of the straps is arrested until the spoke wheel 22 is again turned.

Operation: Assuming the switch 17 is open and the switch 10 is in the full line position shown in Figure 1. Let it be assumed that the car starts on its trip with the straps 27, 28, connected to the knives 6 and 14 and under this condition the lamps will be out because the wire 5 will be connected with the .wire 12 and the circuit will be open at the switch 10 and the wires 11 and 5 will be disconnected at the automatic switch. When the car approaches a tunnel or other section where it is necessary ordesirable to have the lights turned on, one of the plates 23 arranged to engage the spoke wheel 22 just before the car enters the tunnel, will turn the spoke wheel one quarter revolution and this will turn the straps 27, 28 a quarter turn. One of these straps will then connect with the knife 7 and the other will connect with the knife 13 and this will effect the following changes in the circuit. The change of osition of the straps will disconnect the wire 12 from the wire 5 and it will connect the wire 5 with the wire 11. The circuit will then be closed through the wire 5, the wire 11, the switch 10 and wires 9, 2, to the lamps 1 and from the lamps through the wire 3 back to the source of current. Thus, the lamps will be lighted. When the car emerges from the tunnel or other dark section it will meet with another plate 23 and the latter will again rotate the spoke wheel 22 a quarter turn. This will bring the straps 27, 28 into connection with the knives 6 and 14. The wire 5 will then be connected with the wire 12 and the circuit will be broken at the switch 10 and the lamps will be extinguished. These operations will be repeated each time the car passes into and leaves a dark section, or wherever the plates 23 are arranged.

If at any time the automatic switch should be out of time with operating conditions, so that the lamps are extinguished when the car enters a tunnel and are lighted when is emerges therefrom, the conductor or trainman merely has to reverse the switch 10 to correct the error. By throwing over the switch 10 to the dotted line position in Figure 1, the wire 11, will be disconnected from wire 9 and the wire 12 will be connected to the wire 9 and if the lamps were previously lighted they will be extinguished and vice versa. The automatic switch will 0 on operating as before but the lights w1ll be lighted when Wire 5 is connected with the wire 12 through the switch 8 and at other times the lights will be extinguished. Any subsequent time that the lamps are out of time with operating conditions the correcting switch 10 is simply thrown back and this reverses the automatic switch connections.

At night the switch 17 is closed and then the lamps remain lighted continually, the circuit being then completed through the shunt wires 15, 16. The operation of the automatic switch will then not affect the lamps. When daylight commences the switch 17 is opened and the automatic device operates as above described.

From the above it will be apparent that by arranging the plates 23 at suitable locations along the course of the car the lamps may be automatically lighted and extinguished for temporarily lighting the car at certain desired locations.

Having described my invention what I claim is 1. A lighting system for cars comprising lamps arranged to light a car and connected with a source of electric current, a switch associated with the car and adapted to turn said lamps on and oil', means arranged near the path of travel of the car and adapted to operate said switch for the purpose oi. automatically turning on and oil said lamps, and a correcting switch for reversing the operation of said automatic switch on said lamps.

2. A lighting system for cars comprising lamps arranged to light a car and connected with a source of electric current, wires connected with the opposite poles of said lamps, a plurality of wires adapted to be connected with said first wires, an automatic switch associated with the car and means arranged near the path of travel of said car for operating said switch, said automatic switch being adapted to alternately connect the wire from one pole of said lamps with said plurality of wires, and a correcting switch adapted to connect either of said plurality of wires with the wire which is connected with the other pole of said lamps.

3. A lighting system for cars, comprising lamps arranged to light a car and means for connecting said lamps with a source of cur rent, a wire connected with one pole of Said lamps, a plurality of wires either of which is adapted to be connected with said first wire, an automatic switch associated with the car and including a revolving member, and means arranged near the path of travel of the car for operating said revolving member, said automatic switch being adapted to successively connect and disconnect said plurality of wires with said first wire, a wire connected with another pole of said lamps, and a switch adapted to connect said latter wire with either of said plurality of wires.

Signed at the city, county and State of New York. this 19th day of October, 1921.

BENJAMIN RABINOWITZ. 

